Chicago's Bib Gourmands

I know, I know. I'm a day late and a dollar short here. I do what I can. Michelin inspectors have been working their way through the Chicago culinary scene for quite some time now and will release the city's first guide next week. So we won't find out which restaurants received the prestigious "étoiles" for another few days, but they did release the Bib Gourmands yesterday. A Bib Gourmand designation means that the restaurant is Michelin's pick for good food at moderate prices. Here's their explanation:

"A Bib Gourmand rating means the restaurant is an inspector's favorite for good value. For $40 or less, you can enjoy two courses and a glass of wine or dessert (not including tax and gratuity)."

Maybe the best part...in the middle of the night before the Bibs are announced, Michelin chalks an outline of the Michelin man (named Bibendum) on the sidewalk in front of the restaurants selected.



Here's the list. Restaurants I've been to are marked with a *.

Ann Sather
Belly Shack
Bistro 110
The Bristol
Browntrout
Ceres’ Table
Cumin
deca
De Cero*
DeCOLORES
Frances’ Deli
Frontera Grill*
Gilt Bar*
Girl & The Goat*
Green Zebra
Han 202
Hopleaf*
Jaipur
Kith & Kin*
La Creperie
La Petite Folie
Los Nopales
Lula Café
Mado
Mexique
M. Henry
Mixteco Grill
Nana
Nightwood
Opart Thai House
Otom
Paramount Room
Perennial
The Publican*
The Purple Pig*
Raj Darbar
Riccardo Trattoria*
Smak-Tak
Smoque
Spacca Napoli
Taste of Peru
Thai Village
Twin Anchors
UrbanBelly
Veerasway
West Town Tavern

Le Colonial

I can practically see Le Colonial from my window. It's right around the corner and I've probably walked by it dozens of times. It's not that I thought it wouldn't be good, but it's in the direction where I won't walk after a certain time on weekend nights (the Triangle. shudder.) and we don't do a whole lot of dining out during the week. So finally, fates collided and Peter and I both had an entire day off together. Actually now that I'm remembering the day, it wasn't the whole day, but most of it. Still pretty darn good.

We decided to have a lunch date, and even though he really wanted to take me to Urban Belly I didn't feel like getting the car out and then worrying about all the check engine lights and impending inspections and failed emissions tests going on in our vehicular life right now, because I haven't had a car since 2004 and really don't know all these things you're supposed to do and rules you're supposed to follow and tests you're supposed to have done. Feet and subways are a much easier way to get around. So we walked a block to Le Colonial and took them up on their lunch deal.



That, my friends, is pho. "Hearty oxtail soup with rice noodles, beef tenderloin slices, and aromatic herbs." What is an oxtail you ask? Or maybe you don't ask. But I did. Unlike sweetbreads, oxtail is exactly what you think it is. The tail of the cow. It's most often slow-cooked or braised, or used for a soup stock (as it was here). The broth was really tasty, and I added about half of the hot and sweet sauces they gave us. Maybe a little more of the hot. The red is the hot one, and the dark is the sweet.



For the next course we shared three things. Soft salad rolls of shrimp, rice vermicelli, lettuce, bean sprouts, & aromatic herbs in rice paper, with peanut plum dipping sauce:



A salad of grilled salmon with pineapple, grape tomatoes, cucumber, & pineapple vinaigrette:



That was all we got with the lunch special, but I also wanted to try the fried rice because one of my coworkers sometimes has it for lunch and raves about it. So we ordered a side of chicken fried rice, which ended up being more like a huge pile. Fine by me, we had plenty of leftovers to bring home.



Everything was really, really good. We finished all the dishes except the fried rice. I loved the salmon and pineapple salad. Anything with pineapple in it, especially if it's a little bit warm...yum.

So here's the lowdown. Le Colonial is a French-Vietnamese restaurant. It's a little on the fancy side, mostly because of the neighborhood and the clientele. I'm sure it's a scene on weekend nights, but for lunch it was just perfect. We even got an outdoor seat in the front of the restaurant. Their lunch deal is $12 for two courses (choices of a couple different soups, salads, and spring rolls). A pretty good deal, if you ask me.

Le Colonial
937 N. Rush St., Chicago IL 60611

Alinea

I don't know where to start. How do you describe the most amazing meal of your life? We went to Alinea last night for our anniversary, and I can confidently say it was the best dining experience I've ever had. Sure, it's the best restaurant in Chicago. The best in the U.S., and the 7th best in the world according to this year's ranking's by Restaurant Magazine. Obviously it's going to be an unbelievable culinary experience. But it was also FUN. The staff was as professional and accommodating as you would imagine at a place of this caliber, but they were also laid back and made our experience so enjoyable.

I told myself going into this that I was only going to take 2 or 3 pictures, just to document a couple of my favorite courses, but it didn't work out that way. I couldn't help but take more, but I was using my phone so the quality isn't great. You can find really beautiful photos of a meal at Alinea on ulterior epicure's Flickr page. The photos were taken in 2006 so the menu was totally different, but you can still get a sense of the precision that goes into each course.

Here's the stats:

• 3 1/2 hours
• 21 courses
• 10 wines
• 7 servers (maybe a couple more, I lost track)

First of all, they don't give you a menu until the end of the meal. You don't have a choice anyway (unless you have food allergies), so I think they want to keep up the element of surprise and show. Let's look at some pictures! First up: edible cocktails. The one in the front was a Pisco sour, the middle was cucumber, gin and mint, and the last one was cherry with bourbon. I'm simplifying the descriptions they gave us.



The Pisco sour reminded me of a frozen, wet meringue. It was very cold and a little chewy but still light. The second one was a cube of cucumber infused with gin and rosewater and topped with tiny mint leaves. Really refreshing. Bourbon isn't my favorite, but I liked the combination with cherry in the last one.

Skipping over a couple courses, here's the "tomatoes" course. Heirloom tomatoes with freeze dried powders of different ingredients you would find in a caprese salad, and a few extra. Parmesan, mozzarella, balsamic, onion, red pepper, onion, pine nuts, and bread crumbs. And croutons infused with thyme.



This was one of my favorites. The very first thing they brought when we sat down were two pairs of chopsticks propped up at a 45 degree angle by a little metal clip. Pinched in each set of chopsticks was a sheet of rice paper, hanging down like a flag, with colorful bits of vegetables trapped in the rice paper. We were told they were decoration for the table, until a later course when we would be eating them. So here's that course: build-your-own spring roll with the rice paper, curried pork belly, and garnishes which you can see on the glass plate. Black salt, cucumber, crispy garlic, curried mango, lime segments, daikon, onion, hot sauce on the spoon, then a couple cashews, greens, and a dressing with sesame seeds. I wish I could go even more into detail here but I honestly can't remember every little thing.



This course was so incredible that I have to share a picture, but it's very dark so I apologize. It's pheasant breast, green grape, and walnut lightly fried in a tempura batter and skewered with an oak twig. The leaves on the oak twig were briefly lit on fire then blown out but still smoking to give the aroma. The whole thing is propped up in a little metal holder. Amazing.



The "hot potato" course was the only course I expected going into the night. It's been on the menu for awhile and all the reviews I read raved about it. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the photo. The dish that the soup is in is just a couple inches wide. The little bowl contains hot potato soup and you lift the bowl up, then pull the pin on the side out to release the cold potato, black truffle, butter, and parmesan into the hot soup and take it all down in one gulp. The biggest item on the pin is the black truffle draped over a piece of potato, but obviously the picture isn't great. Here's a much clearer photo taken by ulterior epicure.



This was the second to last course - one of the desserts. Earl grey was the predominant flavor. Earl grey cookies, the curly things are caramelized white chocolate, and the other flavors were lemon and pine nut. Oh and that pillow the dish is resting on? It's an inflatable pillow filled with earl grey cream tea scented air, so when the dish is placed on the pillow it releases the scent. I think I'll try to make this one at home. Ha!



Last course. Flavors: chocolate, apricot, honey, peanut. So the server asked us to lift our water glasses off the table, and he spread a grey silicone (I think) sheet over the table. Then this appeared at the edge of the table:



We knew something was going on, we just weren't sure what. A few minutes later one of the chefs appeared at our table and got to work. First he placed the two tubes towards the middle of the table. They are actually open on both sides, but he poured about a half inch white liquid in each so the liquid was directly on the table. He then spread dried apricots, an apricot puree, milk chocolate, honey infused milk, peanut nougat, and chocolate and peanut crumb around the table. I use the word "spread" but he was really creating an incredible masterpiece of a dessert in front of us. I don't remember which happened first but the last two parts were removing the clear tubes and somehow the liquid had hardened into a custard and stayed put. He sprinkled sugar over the top and torched it to make creme brulee. And the last element was freeze dried chocolate mousse (all the dark pieces in the middle) which arrived at the table smoking like dry ice.



See how the milk chocolate spots are square, and the milk/honey spots are round? I was completely mystified by this because I was watching the guy like a hawk the entire time and he poured both the exact same way. I asked him and he kind of shrugged it off as though it was a secret. But when the table next to us had the same course I heard him say they change the elasticity of the liquid so it spreads into different shapes. Ohhhh, ok. I do stuff like that at home all the time.

And then...it was over. Starting with peeking into the kitchen upon walking into the restaurant (it's very open and right by the entrance) and ending with a work of art for dessert spread across our table...three and a half hours of amazing tastes and flavors. Every dish tasted good. That sounds like a silly thing to say, but I genuinely loved every course. Flavors that you think wouldn't be good together all worked in perfect harmony, for example one of the earlier courses with steelhead roe, coconut, licorice, and pineapple. You think - how could those flavors possible work together? But they more than work together, they were perfect.

At the very end they bring you the menu (which they let you keep) so you can look back over everything you've just enjoyed. It's too small to read here but if you click on the picture it should be big enough to see everything. The bigger circles indicate a bigger course, and the smaller circles were small bites or just a taste of something. The lighter print under some of the courses are the wine pairings. We did the wine pairings...I didn't even mention them, there was so much else to talk about. We were really on the fence but I'm glad we did the pairings.



The whole night was truly amazing. A once in a lifetime kind of meal. Alinea is definitely classified as molecular gastronomy, but I didn't feel like the whole thing was a crazy science project. Everything was unbelievably creative both visually and in taste. And one of the craziest things - Chef Grant Achatz was diagnosed with Stage 4 tongue cancer just a few years ago. Can you imagine...a chef of that caliber not being able to taste his food? Miraculously he had treatments that allowed him to keep his tongue and he's since regained his sense of taste. You can read more about his story here.

Alinea
1723 North Halsted St., Chicago IL 60614

Calumet Fisheries

Earlier in the week we took the car out (sounds like no big deal, but our parking spot is not by our apartment) to go apple picking, and whenever we take the car out we try to take advantage and go to places that are otherwise too difficult on public transportation or too expensive in a cab. So...Calumet Fisheries, here we come.



CF is on the south side of Chicago, on 95th Street by the Calumet River bridge. The bridge was up when we arrived, kind of cool. Peter has been once before and wrote a little something for me, but now it's MY turn.

Before going in we took a peek around back at the smokehouse. They smoke all their own fish right in there.



It's not a big place. Just a counter to place your orders, some fryers in the front room and a bit more of a kitchen in the back. No seats, no bathrooms, just get your fish and go find somewhere to eat it.



Here's a better look at the menu:



We ordered a half order of fish chips (NOT fish & chips), a half order of fried clams, and a quarter pound of smoked shrimp. There's plenty to look at while you wait for your food, including a wall pasted with lots of recognition from various websites, newspapers, tv shows, etc. I like this sign on the wall:



This one's not bad either:



That's right folks, Calumet Fisheries won a James Beard Award this year. As legend has it, the owner had to look up who James Beard was when he found out.

And of course there's the breaded seafood ready to fry and the smoked fish to admire.




Order's up! Time for a picnic on the hood of the car.



We could have sat inside the car to eat, but it was kind of warm out. Plus we saw some other people doing the same thing and it looked like a good idea. Here are some close-ups of our spoils. Fried clams:



Smoked shrimp:



And the fish chips:



I know this place is known for their smoked fish, but if I had to pick a favorite - if someone was holding a knife to my throat demanding that I choose one type of fish that I liked best at Calumet - I would say the fish chips. They were very lightly breaded and white and flaky on the inside. The smoked shrimp were amazing though.

I should note that besides the typical menu, hours, and directions pages on their website they also have pages for James Beard, Anthony Bourdain, and Blues Brothers. Anthony Bourdain visited Calumet while filming his Chicago show (last season I believe). And part of Blues Brothers was filmed right at that bridge. Any place that smokes their own fish, has won a James Beard award, has been paid a visit by Bourdain, and has been a part of such a great movie...is more than ok in my book.



Calumet Fisheries
3259 E. 95th Street, Chicago IL 60617

Province

Province is yet another wonderful restaurant in the West Loop neighborhood, which we recently tried for the first time. Their menu is made up of mostly small plates to share, but does have larger plates do you don't have to do the sharing thing if you don't want. The cuisine doesn't have one overarching theme or influence - there are several Spanish-inspired dishes, but also some Asian, some Southern, and lots of new American.

The first part of the menu is "Bites", and we chose the house smoked salmon, bagel crisp, and herbed cream cheese.



Our choice from the "Raw" section of the menu arrived along with the smoked salmon bites. This one is hamachi sashimi with sea salt and serrano chiles.



Next we made one choice from the "Small" section of the menu: grilled herbed flatbread with fresh cheese, arugula, and a slow poached egg. I asked what exactly "fresh cheese" is, and the waitress said it was a housemade cheese similar to ricotta. I even got an action shot of this one...




For the main course we did one dish from "Big" and two from "Bigger". I know, it sounds like a lot of food, but the Bigger dishes really weren't that big. Ok, now I'm starting to confuse myself. From the "Big" part of the menu: Spanish Calasparra rice with market vegetables and manchengo cheese. Very cheesy and rich, but delicious.



And from the Bigger section, rare Hawaiian tuna with baby bok choy, spring onions, romesco, and caper vinaigrette...



And ten hour BBQ's lamb with roasted eggplant, chorizo, and cornbread. Mmmm.



Did we order dessert? Is the pope Catholic? Any dessert item with blueberries, and I'm sold. We got a blueberry tartlet with vanilla bean ice cream and blueberry syrup.



Hard to say, but I think my favorite dishes were the flatbread and the tuna. And the smoked salmon bite, it was just a taste but really good. And obviously the blueberry dessert. Ok, ok...it was all great!

Girl and the Goat

Last weekend we tried a new restaurant - not just new to us, but new to Chicago. Girl and the Goat just opened about a week ago, maybe less, and it's Stephanie Izard's restaurant. Recognize that name? She won Top Chef Season 4.



The restaurant is very handsome-looking. I don't want to say pretty because it has a very rustic look, but it's a really cool space with a big open kitchen so you can see everything going on. Upon being seated we were handed a wine and cocktail menu, a regular menu, and a little bread and oyster menu. If you want bread, you have to order it and it's $5. Whaaaat? I know, but trust me - you want this bread. They have an in-house baker making everything fresh, and there are three choices of what comes with the bread. We got the white anchovy butter and roasted garlic in olive oil option. The bread was hot and crusty and the butter tasted like caesar dressing melting into the bread.



I'm never one to pass up oysters, so we ordered the raw French Kisses with some kind of mignonette. I apologize for the lack of details in explaining exactly what's in each dish, but I assumed the whole menu would be online so I could go back and look at it again but it's not.



The menu is designed so that everything is a small plate to be shared. We ordered three and a veggie side dish. The first one to arrive was the pork liver moussaline. I know, crazy. Since I liked the other two dishes we ordered I told Peter he could go crazy and get whatever he wanted for the third even if I didn't like it. This dish is something I would have never ordered on my own, but once I tried it...it was so good. The moussaline is in that little jar and it came with some little buns, a cherry jam of sorts, and housemade pickles which were amazing. I don't even really like cherries, but there I was slathering the pork liver and cherry jam on bread and really enjoying it.



The veggie dish arrived along with the moussaline. Roasted cauliflower with pine nuts, onions, and mint. So, so good.



The next two plates were both seafood. Scallops with caperberries and bits of braised veal:



The scallops were good, but the braised veal was my favorite part of the dish. And here's the other one - crispy soft shell crab with corn and potatoes. Really excellent.



And of course, dessert. What's a meal without dessert? We got two: the "fudgcicle" and the goat cheese bavaroise. The goat cheese dish was kind of like a goat cheese cheesecake substance, but fluffier and not as sweet, with blueberry and brown sugar cake underneath.




So, here's my beef with dessert. Every dessert option, and there were four, had a very big savory component. The fudgcicle had olive oil gelato and a beer butter sauce. One of the other desserts involved fried potato dumplings. It almost seemed like Stephanie isn't a sweets person and reluctantly put a few dessert items on the menu but didn't go all the way into the dessert category with what she chose. Me, I like dessert. The goat cheese thing was good, but I wish it was more cake and blueberries and less cheese. The fudgcicle was ok. I like olive oil gelato, but sometimes you just want a good flourless chocolate cake with some fresh whipped cream or vanilla gelato, you know?

That's really my only complaint about the meal though. The food was excellent, the staff couldn't have been nicer or more excited to be opening a new restaurant, and restaurant itself had a great vibe. I know we'll be coming back for more. And look at this cute little goat!

The Publican

This post is long overdue - this is one of the restaurants we went to over 4th of July weekend. The Publican is the newest restaurant by the team behind Blackbird and avec, and is beer, pork, and seafood focused. I'm sorry the pictures aren't great, it was a bit dark in there. But let's get to it.

First up, oysters. I know we got Kumamoto, Island Creek, Moon Shoal, and I can't remember the fourth kind.



Next, grilled calamari with green beans and a spicy sauce. I wish this picture was clearer because this dish was so good. The pieces of calamari were huge and the spiciness was perfect.



After the calamari, our order of mussels arrived. I should note that the Publican's menu is set up to share everything - some are smaller dishes and some are larger, but everything comes out as it's ready. The mussels were done pretty traditionally - broth with butter, garlic, bay...but maybe the best part was the bread that came with it. A hot, crusty loaf wrapped in brown paper. No picture! Ugh!



We got a couple vegetable sides: broccoli with bread crumbs, and summer squash with feta, onions and arugula. The squash was excellent.




Last dish: skirt steak with figs. It was just enough for each of us to have a slice, and perfectly seasoned and cooked.



Ok, I guess that wasn't technically the last dish. For me, dessert is always a must. Chocolate pot de creme with red currants.



All in all, a great meal. One of the fun things about the restaurant is that you either sit it a very long communal table, or in a booth that has doors on it so it's like your own stall. I can't wait to go back!